Secrets in Nevecolina
by Taybeth
Summary: A story about 2 girls, Tay and Beth, 2 complete opposites who are stuck with 2 out of 3 of their classes together and how they manage to survive. Comedy, magic, romance and tragedy. Rated T for language. PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS, REVIEWS or E-MAIL after read
1. Chapter 1 Enemies

Chapter 1 Enemies

Walking alone down deserted hallways, Beth looked intently at the map she'd brought along with her. She was trying to get to her homeroom class, Magical Studies. It was her first year at secondary school_, Nevecolina Training Academy_, which trained the students to become warriors, knights or sorcerers, Nevecolina being her country. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she examined the map, then walked to the end of the hall and turned left. Looking down again, she saw that her classroom was right at the end of this hallway and excitement nearly made her break into a run. This frightened Beth for a moment, as she fought to gain control of herself. That had never happened before, and she thanked her mother silently for enrolling her in the yoga class over the summer.

Once she was sure she had control of herself, Beth began to walk calmly down the soft yellow walled hall. When she reached the end, she saw a mahogany door with interesting markings around it in an unknown language. This intrigued Beth; there were few languages unknown to her. Gently tracing the nearest marking - which looked something like an eight caught in a pentagon - Beth's eyes moved to a glass doorknob. What had caught her attention was the swirling purple cloud like mist inside it.

It was then when Beth lost complete control of herself again. Without knowing what she was doing, she'd grabbed the doorknob, jumped at the slight shock it gave her and nearly ran into the room. However, she managed to hold back a gasp at her first glance of the room.

It was amazing. The carpet was swirls of thousands of both familiar and unfamiliar colors. The walls were covered in the unknown language that had surrounded the door. And on the ceiling floated an identical purple mist that was inside the doorknob. Beth thought her hazel eyes might fall out looking in awe at this fantasy of a classroom, but she could not turn away.

"Excuse me," came a low calm voice from behind her. "Are you a student?"

"Yes, sir," answered Beth, spinning around automatically, tearing herself away. She fought to hold back a laugh, this teacher looked older than her great-grandmother. And his smooth gray hair was down past his knees; how many hours would it take to brush it? "This will be my homeroom class this year." She continued once she had regained control of herself once more.

"But school doesn't start for another hour!" exclaimed the voice, not as calm as before. His misty purple eyes seemed to darken.

"I know." replied Beth, turning again to gaze at the immaculate purple mist sky.

****

*buzz* buzz* bu- click*

"Urgh…five more minutes…" the young girl named Tay languidly moaned to no one but herself. She leisurely opened her majestic cobalt eyes and skimmed her bright, eggshell white room. Nothing was in there but a cheap wooden nightstand with an old-fashioned pink alarm clock, coincidently the color she hated most. Tay slowly drifted back to sleep, oblivious that her mother was standing at her doorway, arms crossed and evidently upset.

"Tay…Tay…….TAY!!! WAKE UP!!" Tay's mother was clearly infuriated at her slowly awakening daughter. Tay slowly brushed back her long blue hair and sat up sleepily. She looked around dazedly at the almost empty white apartment. It had been that way since Tay and her mother moved in a year ago.

"Listen here Tay! I got you into an expensive school for only elite students! I _swear _if you get into trouble just**once**, I'll kick you out of this family and put you out onto the streets so that the Disciplinary School can get you!" Her face was ice-cold; Tay knew she was serious.

"Alright, I'm going now mom…I promise you won't be getting any trouble from me!" Tay forced a bright smile on her face, but her mother knew better.

"Right now you should be panicking about being late for the first day of school. Now hurry up! God, how did I get stuck with such a care-free child?" Tay's mother sighed heavily and slowly walked away to her own bedroom to lie down.

Tay then got dressed as fast as she could with clothes that were just lying around consisting of unmatched green and orange striped socks, a black sweater, dark blue jeans, and flip flops. She then sprinted out the door at mach-speed, went through a couple arbitrary backyards by jumping over their fences, then over one of the school's fences, and finally ran into a teacher, all in five minutes.

Tay swiftly asked for directions to her classroom and the teacher smiled amiably and gently directed Tay to the correct classroom. Getting lost several times along the way, Tay finally pulled out the rough map the teacher had scribbled for her. Realizing where she was, she ran to the nearest corner and turned left, looked at the right side of the hallway and found her classroom.

She entered quickly and sat down at the only seat which was left, located at the front of the class. Feeling awkward from all the stares especially from the geeky girl she was going to have to sit next too - who was giving her threatening glares – Tay sat down. She then patiently waited for the teacher to go on with the lesson and the girl beside her to stop glaring at her. Then she slowly drifted back to sleep once again, without taking a single glance at the odd variations of colors and symbols surrounding her.

****

Transfixed by the long talk the teacher was giving them, it was a few minutes before Beth heard the soft groans coming from beside her. When she did, Beth was disgusted when she saw the girl sitting beside her snoring on the open textbook. She bristled when she saw drool sliding from her companion's mouth into a small pool on the textbook.

To wake her up, Beth prodded her sharply in the shoulder, which only made her groan louder. When Beth knew the teacher, Mr Pochirk hadn't heard it, Beth prodded her harder with the edge of her pencil, which did nothing but make the snores louder again. Losing her temper, Beth grabbed her glasses case and hit the girl - what was her name? Tal? - hard on the head, which made a startled yell echo around the room, followed by an even louder thump.

"What is going on?" demanded a sharp low voice behind them. Beth gulped as she turned around in her seat to face Mr Pochirk's blazing purple eyes.

****

"What the hell?! Why'd you go and hit me like that?!" Tay was incredibly annoyed and exhausted from only getting 13 hours sleep that day. Never mind that the shock of the rude awakening had caused her to fall upon the hard floor.

"You! Tay, was it?" said a now cold voice behind her. "What do you think your doing interrupting my class for a second time?! You arrived late, came unprepared without even a writing utensil, no uniform on, fall asleep in my class and now finally I was able to start class normally you fall on the ground?!"

He had gone over the edge, and it was still only the first day of school. Tay could already tell staying in this school would become a challenge. She knew she needed to fix what she had done and fast.

"I give you my sincerest apology teacher. Why don't you cool down a bit first? Your face has gone as red as a tomato. I apologize for what I did, I didn't get much sleep today, but what about her?" Tay pointed to the girl sitting innocently in her chair. "She's the one who _really_ disturbed the class. I would have silently woken up if the girl beside me was hadn't hit me! It was because of her that I yelled. I understand if I get in trouble but do you think it's fair that she gets away with it?" Tay responded as coolly as she could, trying not to offend the teacher, yet getting revenge at Beth for hitting her.

"Alright **both** of you will stay after classes and clean all 150000 acres of the school without using magic…even though I doubt you have the brain capacity to do any spells."

"What?" exclaimed the girl who sat beside her. "Please, sir, I only woke her for your sake. I don't think –" But the girl stopped when Mr. Pochirk turned slowly to face her.

"That's quite enough, Beth." He said, shortly.

He then stared down at Tay with those beady purple eyes as if saying Tay was stupid. Tay was outraged by his sneering, arrogant attitude, however even more outraged by the fact she had to clean the whole school. Beth was also staring at Tay in a similar way, her eyes boring into hers. _Another enemy_, thought Tay, but before she could try to make amends, the bell rang. And it was the girl beside her, Beth who was first to leave the classroom, without saying a word to Tay, her pale green hair whipping behind her. Knowing why Beth was in such a temper, Tay sighed, got to her feet and followed suit.


	2. Chapter 2 Crushed Dreams

Chapter 2 Crushed dreams

Her eyes were on the map in her hands but her thoughts were elsewhere. Her next class was in another building but she couldn't get her mind focused for more than a few seconds, it kept drifting back to … her. Beth's hands curled into fists. Trying to breathe evenly, she looked pointlessly back at the map again.

_What was wrong with that girl?_ She wondered. _What was her problem?_ Beth admitted she probably should not have woken her up that way, but it was not fair that she also had to stay after school. Of course the teacher **must** have been joking when he had said they would have to clean the entire school … right? And Beth's anger was quickly replaced by fear.

Her very first detention – would this go on her permanent record? If it did, it would ruin the future she had so carefully planned out for herself! She had planned to make her own library, with all the books in all the languages, and teach these languages there for a small fee in the afternoons (she was not a morning person). Her house would be next door, and she wouldn't need security officers guarding it because she would form a huge magic shield around it. But would they trust her to do that with a detention on her permanent record? Beth suddenly felt very light-headed and went straight for the nearest bench.

"Hello," said a loud voice, as Beth sat down. Turning, Beth saw a tanned, deep brown haired face with warm orange eyes sitting next to her, smiling at her.

"Hello," replied Beth, smiling back faintly.

"My name is Bolocenoura," the friendly girl continued. "But you can call me Bola."

"I'm Beth," answered Beth, straightening her glasses. "Umm … I don't think there's a short form for that." Bola smiled widely. "What do you have next?" added Beth, trying to keep her thoughts away from her crushed hopes and dreams.

"Ancient History," said Bola after eyeing her timetable.

"Me too," replied Beth, nodding. "Do you know where it is?" Looking confused, Bola pointed simply at the birch door five feet in front of them. "Oh," gasped Beth, surprised at first and then immensely proud of herself.

"The teacher's Mr. Varo," continued Bola, with a confused tone. Beth promptly stopped smiling and thinking of compliments of herself.

"Do you want to go in now?" asked Beth, hoping the girl didn't think she was crazy … at least no more crazy than she was.

"Alright," agreed Bola, still looking a bit wary.

This classroom was very different from the one Beth had just left, but no less extraordinary. On these walls were paintings from, Beth guessed, every era they would study. They went from simple animal drawings to complicated religious ceremonies. The floor was a variation of animal skins, including at least two Beth recognized as extinct. But like the magic classroom, the most amazing was the ceiling, it was hard to say which one more so. On this one was the word 'History' formed by translations in every language. Beth lost control of herself once more and raced over to the nearest picture on the wall.

"Are you two members of my class?" asked a cool voice from the front of the classroom. Beth tore herself away from the masterpiece to see a young man, almost the exact opposite of the wrinkled teacher she had just left.

"Yes," answered Beth, fighting the urge to turn back to the wall.

"Then welcome," the teacher replied, throwing his arms out. "Please be seated."

Beth beckoned to Bola to follow her and they both took seats beside each other at the front and center of the class. Entranced by the beauty of it, Beth didn't register as the others came in. So she jumped when the teacher began talking again.

"Hello class," he said. "My name is Mr. Varo and I hope you enjoy this class. I'm sure you've noticed the floor is covered in animal fur, can anyone name – yes, Beth, was it?"

"Yes, sir," answered Beth, who's hand had shot into the air. "Most are just the animals we have today, but I believe I saw unicorn silk and dragon scales near the back of the class?"

"Correct, Beth," replied Mr. Varo, nodding. "Well done." Beth smiled brightly, she loved it when teachers thought she was brilliant. Of course, she knew this already, but it was still nice to hear it once in a while. "As Beth rightly says class," Mr. Varo continued. "We have many skins beneath us – though I assure you none were hunted down. They have just been collected over time.

"Our first unit is on the long extinct animals, such as the unicorn and dragons. We will research how these animals perhaps came to be and how we may have destroyed them. We know nothing for sure, but some historians such as myself have added theories together from the little references we have access to. For the first homework tonight, you will each get one reference and summon your own theories from it. There will be no mark on these, I just want to know your viewpoints."

And Mr. Varo continued describing the past for the rest of the class. He told them of the rest of the units they would cover this year, they would next study huge natural disasters and their impact on the people and, usually more importantly, the earth. Legends and myths would follow that unit, and finally they would cover the history of culture and religion. Again Beth was lost in the teachers words, but every once in a while would look to her left to make sure Bola was not drooling on the text book. Luckily, Bola was a much better student than Tay.

"Beth?" asked Mr. Varo, as the class filed out of the classroom, whispering to each other in awe. "Could I talk to you?"

"See you tomorrow, Beth!" called Bola, following the others out of the class.

"Yes, sir?" said Beth, cautiously walking towards the front of the class, dreading another detention. What had she done this time?

"I was wondering if you wanted to borrow a textbook for the year ahead of us?" asked Mr. Varo. "I think you already know of most of the topics I spoke of today."

"I did a bit of research over the summer," admitted Beth. "But what we'll be observing in class sounds incredible."

"Thank you," smiled Mr. Varo. "But I would gladly give you something else to study in your spare time. The books are at the back, you can have a look at them if you would like."

"Thank you, sir," replied Beth. "But I don't think I will."

However, as she reached the end of the classroom, Beth was overcome by temptation and looked at the titles before her. One in particular jumped out at her. She was sure she'd seen it before …

"Mr. Varo?" she asked. "Could I take this one." For a fraction of a second Beth could've sworn she'd seen a frown upon her teachers face. But his face jumped into a smile so quickly, Beth thought it must have been a trick of the light.

"Yes, you can Beth," he answered. "Good choice."

"Thank you, sir," Beth repeated, and hurried out of the class.

Pulling out her map, Beth found her next class, cooking, and walked quickly towards it. Her bag was too full for another textbook, so the Anicent History one remained tucked under her elbow. It was a shade of darkest blue and the title, which was inscribed in black, was barely visible. But it shone like gold when Beth looked at it -almost as though it was calling out to her - a pentagonal eight.


	3. Chapter 3 Shadow

Chapter 3 Shadow

Tay walked out of her first class, transfixed on her next one: gym. She couldn't help but speculate what this class called "gym" was going to be like. The description of the course was so baffling she couldn't help but apply for it with it's brief, vague description consisting of a couple sentences:

_Join to see if you can survive the ASC. If you pass a reward will be given_.

Because of those two sentences Tay had unconsciously joined primarily thinking of the reward. Now however, she couldn't help but have a cynical point of view, she feared it might involve something like torture. She shuddered at the thought. She couldn't wait any longer; she needed to get to her next class.

She reached into her back pocket to get out the map of the school she promptly grabbed while exiting her first class. The only problem was that, that map had disappeared. Tay figured she dropped it when that discourteous, nerdy "Beth" girl hit her oh-so-kindly on the head. Tay was too weary to care, so instead she imagined the map in her head and followed it. She soon realized her class was closer than she thought it was a little while ago. All she had to do was walk into the tele-door (a door that transports you to your designated area through teleportation), walk down the left hallway and the second door on the left was the classroom.

Tay followed those instructions and opened a rather moist, wooden door. Tay peeped into the aging room only to find it empty. Tay opened the door all the way, walked in silently and routinely went to the corner of the classroom to sit down on the floor to sleep.

"Good day everyone! Right now you may be a bit confused of what's happening but if you follow my instructions you'll be fine."

Tay snapped out of her almost sleep state, perked up her ears and saw that the teacher talking was the same kind teacher who gave the map to her class this morning. Tay became delighted at the thought that she would have such a relaxed class. After all, it had to be, with a teacher as kind as her. Tay had learned all the information of this class that she wanted to know, so she leaned against the corner, snuggled in and drifted back asleep while the teacher was saying _only choose one. _One of what, Tay did not know.

Tay was sound asleep dreaming of nothingness with all her heart. Her sleeping face was grinning a little smile and she was as happy as ever. Until …*BZZZZZZ* Tay's body shook and burned throughout it. She was being shocked. It only lasted a second but that was all it took to make Tay alert and ready to attack whoever did such a barbaric thing to a sweet, innocent girl such as herself. The thought and anger didn't last long though. Her attention was quickly drawn in by the fact that the room was quickly being engulfed by darkness.

In a matter of moments the room she was once standing in was gone. The ground began to shake soon after, and the ground disappeared. Tay's body was falling head first, her long blue haired whirled in front of her face, and swayed in the wind, her cobalt eyes growing wider and wider, her mouth gasping after the sudden disappearance of the room … and the floor. Tay couldn't help but take a moment to marvel over how wonderfully fascinating it was to watch and experience such a thing. Her shocked face suddenly transformed into a wide smile as she started to laugh over how amusing it was.

"HAHAHAHAHA!! WOOOOH!! This is awesome - BOOYAA!!" Her yells of happiness seemed to drift into the darkness as she was fell into the never-ending darkness. Tay was doing flips, turns, spins, twists and – **thud**.

Tay hit what she guessed was the ground, harshly. Her fun was over, her happiness flying away in a blink of an eye, leaving her alone with nothing but pain from her fall. Her expression switched to a pouting face, which resembled that of a whining child. She sat where she fell, curled up in a ball, unhappy of the fact she couldn't sleep in such a peaceful place because she ached from the fall, and the electric shock made her body feel numb. She sat there for what felt like hours to her until a voice called out.

"Do you want out?" A tiny, female voice whispered through the dark, cold, crisp air.

"Yeah ..." Tay responded in a whiny voice.

"Well, do not worry this won't take long, it is nothing but a short test. If you have what it takes to be a student in this class one of the four items will appear. If you can see none before you ... well who knows what could happen. Now here is the moment of truth, look in front of you."

As swiftly as wind the anonymous voice was gone. Tay promptly looked before her to see the most beautiful, white katana with weird etchings sketched upon it. It was held by a small animal of some kind. Tay couldn't actually see the animal very well; Tay cautiously approached the small animal, kneeled down, picked up the katana from the small animals mouth and finally patted the animal. Just as she patted the animal, a blinding flash of white light, soared across the darkness, leading Tay back into the empty, aging classroom she was in before. That once empty classroom was now filled with around twelve people Tay had never seen before. Tay then looked at her left hand, and there surely was the most elegant, beautiful white katana that she had picked up when in the darkness. As she looked to her right side, there sat the blackest wolf cub. He was sitting with so much pride and confidence Tay immediately swept the cub off the ground and into her arms. She cuddled him and decided to name him _Shadow. _

"All right you maggots," boomed the charismatic and calm teacher who started the class before. However this time it seemed to be with an alternative attitude. "Results are in!! All fail but two, Anjo and Tay. You two can keep what items you got and get lost. Don't come back to class without receiving a message directly from me! Now go!!" The once nice teacher exclaimed, and roughly sliced through the air pointing to the nearest rotting door. Tay didn't particularly care about the way the teacher turned out to be anymore, she was just exhilarated over the fact she thought she wouldn't have to attend second class. With that thought in mind, she skipped to the door and happily left.

"_I get more time to sleeeep- Sleeeep- sleeeep- More time to sleeeep- sleep, eat and play-"_

Tay chanted after exiting the classroom. Tay walked and singed, while in a trance of bliss. She rapidly halted to a stop, because she had almost walked straight into a girl with medium long, golden hair.

"Uh, I…..I….." she seemed to stumble over what she was trying to say. Her amber eyes glanced to the ground. It seemed like she was diverted over something.

"What? Well, if it's about the puppy……NO." Tay embraced the puppy even tighter while turning away as if this girl would take him away from her.

"Ah! No sorry, that's not what I meant." Tay glanced back at the girl. She seemed to be cured of whatever was happening before. Tay decided she'd give the girl a chance. She turned back around and tried her best to pay attention.

"Sorry, I was just collecting my thoughts. I got shocked at the beginning of class. I suppose I'm still a bit affected by it. My name is Anjo. It seems we're the only ones who passed the test, so I just want to say congratulations. Since we both have second free and all, I thought it would be nice to hang out." Anjo was smiling so innocently it shocked Tay. She never thought she would meet such a kind person. Everyone she met so far was ignorant, mean people with horrible intentions like … that snobbish brat Beth. Tay just could not refuse.

"All right, just so you know I wander a lot and if I find a nice spot I'm going to take nap." Tay said what she wanted to say and now her attention span was gone. She glanced around and realized her next class was right behind Anjo. Anjo started chatting away while Tay was now caught up on tracking the movements of a white fuzz ball floating in the air. Anjo stopped talking, waved and walked away. Tay snatched the lint, said good-bye to Anjo and trudged off to her next class - cooking.


	4. Chapter 4 A Reputation

Chapter 4

Tay looked up at the door as it read "Cooking class 2236 Ms. Smith". Tay frowned as the name on the door reminded her of her previous female teacher, whom she still didn't know the name of. Tay stretched her arms out in the air and opened the door. There at the front of the class stood a medium tall woman with short black hair. Ms. Smith turned to look at the new student entering the class - with only a few seconds until class began - and grunted.

"Hurry up and sit down," Her dark black eyes darted away from Tay and continued with whatever she was doing on the board. Tay glanced around and sat at the back of the class with two other people.

"Hello," said a high nasal voice. "My name's Karen." Tay turned to meet the girl and tried to hide her alarm. The girl appeared to be stuck up and rich, she was wearing some expensive looking jewelry and clothes. Her lemon yellow hair and pale skin made her acne stand out, despite the wads of cover-up she had plastered against it. Her sharp grey eyes glared down at Tay – she was by far the taller of the two – and her thin nose stuck up, as though she was more important than anyone else. Tay smiled back and gave the girl her name, but inside after she had noticed these unpleasant features she somehow knew that she did not like this girl. Hoping that the classmate on her other side would be more fun, Tay turned to see. But unfortunately, the other one on the other hand had a hood over their face and seemed to be trying to avoid her attention.

"Alright everyone look at the magic board and sit in your designated seats. There are no exceptions, so sit where you're told." The teacher said, sounded very bored.

Tay looked at the board and to her amusement she was supposed to sit next to Beth and some other person named Basil. _Well at least I know what to expect from her_. Tay thought remembering Beth from this morning with distaste. She walked over to her new seat tripping over a couple people but still managing getting there in one piece – which was quite an accomplishment for Tay. She sat down and found out the hooded she was sitting with before was already there. _So that's Basil_. She figured by the name it was a guy. Tay all of a sudden had a cold shiver run down her spine. She turned behind her to see Beth walking towards the table giving her an evil glare. Her green eyes seemed to freeze Tay. Tay didn't dare stop looking at Beth because she couldn't help but think Beth would hit her at any given moment. Shadow seemed to have noticed and started to growl quietly while also glaring at Beth.

"Meh. I'm just surprised you haven't been thrown out yet," sneered Beth, sitting down next to her and edging her seat as far away as she could. "Just look at you now. You've already broken yet again another school code. Number 435, section B **no** creatures of any sort are allowed in the school. Perhaps I'll help the teachers out and get rid of you so that they don't waste their time on someone who doesn't even want this education. You damaged my beautiful dreams! I worked my bones off to get where I am today and just one person ruined it all in one go!!" Tay looked at Beth with a shocked expression. She couldn't believe what she just heard. This was not fair, but Tay knew she could not afford to get expelled form this school. Not with her mother breathing behind her neck every moment.

"I am SO sorry. Could you please except my apology?" Tay went on her knees and looked at Beth with the best puppy eyes she could make. Beth looked at the kneeling Tay and appeared as if she was appalled by it. She shook her head.

"Perhaps I will give you one more chance. But mess up in any way and I'm sending you out of here in a heart beat." Tay was relieved. So she quickly got up and sat down again.

"You two!!" yelled a voice, making Tay jump. "What are you doing? Hurry up and get in your seats! Tay! What's that dog doing here? Dispose of it at once. Things of that sort do not belong in this classroom." The teacher snarled. She didn't seem to be in a good mood.

"Um, Ms. Smith was it?" began Tay. I received this "thing" from my second class; it's supposed to be with me at all times. He's well behaved and will not get in the way." Tay tried to say this as politely as she could. She couldn't be expelled on the first day of school. Let alone because of Beth.

"Fine but it must be in this cage until class is over." replied the teacher. "But I will be speaking to your second class teacher. As for the rest of the class, your first job is to go through the book which is on your table in front of you. Do every recipe in it. This assignment will have to be complete in a week. Hand in everything you complete directly to me. Now begin."

As she completed the sentence white shiny tables appeared, growing out of the floor with a thick, easily over a thousand page book on it. Along with the tables appeared a green marble kitchen spread all along the walls of the class. Everything seemed beautiful but Tay hardly had a chance to notice because the big book was scaring her too much. It appeared to say 1/23 on the cover. Tay was horrified as to what the 1/23 was supposed to indicate.

"Tay." came a voice Tay was beginning to loath. "Hurry up and put your animal in the cage – it's time to begin the class. And you! Basil was it? I want to know your strong points in cooking. I want to know how useful you will be." Beth was already barking commands. Tay went over to the front of the class where the teacher stood.

"Good. Put him in the cage over there," the teacher pointed to a wooden cage which was right beside the door which Tay entered the class in. Tay walked over to the wooden cage and place Shadow inside. Shadow looked up at her and seemed to be concerned.

"Don't worry it's only for this class-" Tay reassured Shadow and walked back to her group. She didn't want Beth to expel her just because she took too long placing Shadow in the wooden cage. Though that probably wasn't a rule, she wasn't going to take any more chances.

"Good." Beth nodded. "Basil go and start boiling water and cutting the herbs. Tay, go and get the three containers labeled sinex, trecent and sulfur. Then measure one table spoon of each and mix them in a large bowl. Remember the measurements-"

"I know I'm not dumb!" Tay replied as politely as she could manage. "But what are we making? Surely we can't eat sinex, trecent and Sulfur."

"We're using it to cook the stuff. Just go you two! You wouldn't understand if I told you in detail." Tay went to her groups' kitchen section and went looking for the stuff.

"Ch' she doesn't have to be so mean." Tay was mumbled as she was opened and closed cupboards. She was terribly unhappy with the turn of events.

"It's in this cupboard." said a deep voice that sent shivers up Tay's spine. Looking up, Tay saw the hooded guy holding the three tiny bottles. All were a different colour one red, one orange and one yellow. For a reason unfamiliar to her, Tay found herself taking note that Basil was pretty tall. And Tay was somehow tempted to pull his hood so she could see his face. Tay shook her head, and she was back to normal. She then convinced herself it was her curiosity.

"Thank you!" Tay smiled at him in appreciation and got out a large bowl.

She decided she'd start the mixing, to show Beth that she wasn't an idiot. She got out a table spoon and opened the lid of the first bottle. She measured and poured for the sinex and trecent. But as she was measuring the sulfur – *bump*

"Ah damn!!" Tay was so upset now she could easily turn around and kill the person who just recklessly bumped into her. But before she could turn *BOOOM* the bowl exploded and dark smoke quickly filled the room. Tay chocked on the smoke and started to cough uncontrollably. Soon there was a flash of soft green light and the room of smoke cleared. Tay saw she had cuts on her hands because of the bowls explosion and she felt a sharp sting on her left check.

"What the hell did you do?!!" both Beth and the teacher boomed at the same time. Tay fought back a laugh; even their expressions were the same. Both looked like they were ready to kill her, which is how she fought back the laughter.

"Some one bumped into to me as I was pouring Sulfur. Then it went *kaboom* as you can see." Tay's face was expressionless. The day had sucked away all her emotions. This was definitely the worst day of her life so far.

"Who ran into Tay? Tell me now!" shrieked the teacher. No one moved an inch.

"Tay, no one's coming forward so all I've got is your word. Should I trust you?" Yet again no one moved, except for Beth.

"I wouldn't. She slept for all of my first class and even got me in trouble for trying to wake her! And now I have detention." Beth didn't appear to be trying to be mean however she just made Tay's day a lot worse.

"Well then. It appears to be you don't have the best reputation and it's only the first day of school. So as your punishment your group must finish this assignment in half a week."

Tay nodded and silently walked back to her group's table. She avoided Beth's hostile glare, wondering which would be better; her mother's punishment or staying in that school and dealing with everyone's way of torturing her.

***

_Why did she have to be stuck with that brat in two thirds of her classes? _Beth wondered, madly chopping apart the onions. _This girl … this __**Tay**__ … was really going to destroy her plans for the future. What did she think she was doing, messing in cooking class? And falling asleep in magic class, it was by far the most interesting class out of the three Beth had, anyway. Why couldn't she have Bola in this class? Bola had seemed like a good, dedicated student. And …_ Beth pondered, trying to find the right word _… well, like me, she concluded, when compared to this monster._

"Do we need any other ingredients?" came a voice from right behind her shoulder.

"No, I don't think so," Beth replied, stiffly, regnoizing the voice and having a sudden mad urge to turn around and stab Tay with the knife. For the second time that day, she thanked her mother for making her take those yoga classes.

"Can I start the next potion then?" asked Tay. At this, Beth did turn around, after hastily putting down the knife. She glared into Tay's dark blue eyes with her own hazel. She needed to show this animal **who was in control**.

"No," Beth said, firmly, before turning back to continue to chopping the onions.

"Hey!" the voice cried out, annoying Beth. _Couldn't it tell that she was already beyond annoyed? And __mad__? And __**furious**__?_ She would hit insanity by the end of the day at this rate.

"No, you can't get any more ingredients," Beth sighed, her white knuckled hand continuing to chop.

"It's not that," the voice answered. "It's that book in your bag. The black dusty one." Beth had not been expecting that, and thereby found herself following the other girl's gaze. Her eyes saw her history book that Mr. Varo had lent her, because she had been so far ahead in her studies. Beth felt her cheeks warm, she had never been praised like that before, but after a moment or two shook her head to respond.

"What about it?"

"Isn't that symbol on the door to the magic classroom?" asked Tay.

"What?" Beth nearly laughed. _Was this girl blind?_ "Or course not!" But they had work to do, and she didn't have time for stupid, wasted conversations like this. "I'm done the onions, so after I've added them, we can move on to the next assignment. For that we'll need …" Beth looked at the textbook carefully, pushing her round glasses up her nose. "Yare, gaffe and lope."

"Okay," said Tay. Beth thought for a moment she heard something funny in her voice, but when she turned around to ask, Tay was already walking towards the shelves again. Shrugging, deciding it wasn't worth asking, Beth began to drop the onions pieces into the pot, one at a time.

About five minutes later, the school bell rang throughout the hallways. Beth cleaned up their cooking utensils and then quickly began to sweep the floor. She was about to start a conversation with Tay, until Tay dropped the teacher's finest plate. After a storm of yells from both the teacher herself (who, like Beth, no longer trusted Tay) and Beth, they were told to leave before they broke anything else.

Then when they were cleaning the magic classroom, Tay accidently slipped on a potion on the floor, knocking over several bookshelves. Beth lost her patience and made Tay pick up every single book and put them back on the shelves in alphabetical order. For the rest of the relentless afternoon of detention, in which they cleaned until their hands were raw red, there was also a dry silence in the air between them.


End file.
